Friday, July 13, 2007

Last fall when J.K. Rowling announced the title of the last Harry Potter novel I did a list of my predictions for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and wouldn't you know it, I'm still getting comments and visits on that post with people adding their two cents on what's going to happen.

Well we're down to the final week people and to sweeten the wait I'm hosting a small contest.

I want you to guess the last word of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. That's right, the very last word. We've tossed this around our dinner table a bit and have come up with our own thoughts but I'd like to see what you have to say.

To play along, leave a comment below with your prediction, putting the one word in quotation marks so there's no confusion as to which word you mean. I will accept entries until Friday morning July 20th at 1 am Alaska time and you can enter as many times as you'd like (each in a separate comment please) but it's first-come-first-serve. Whoever claims a word first gets it so check the comments to see if the one you fancy has been taken. There are nearly 900,000 words in the language so there's plenty to go around.

Your word must match exactly--spelled exactly the way it is in the last sentence of the last paragraph of the last page just before the last period. I'm going to have to be picky so make sure you are a good speller. And it must be the last word of the main text, a "The End" or an epilogue doesn't count.

Why all these rules? Because I'm offering a prize, that's why! The first commenter to correctly guess the last word will get to choose between a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or two tickets to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix via Fandango (now playing in theaters). If no one is able to guess it then I'll do a random drawing from all the entries.

I will announce the winner on Saturday night so check back to see if it was you. You'll need to then email me to claim your prize. I'm sorry but only U.S. residents are eligible for the prize--though don't let that stop you from adding your comment.

You scared me Bradley! I'm not a HUGE Harry Potter trivia master and when you mentioned the last word being scar it scared me. "Did I miss something?" Because I then remembered hearing that the last word was announced as being "scar."

I did a quick Google and found evidence saying that Rowling changed the word at "the eleventh hour."

Bwahahahahaha! Look what I just found at this site. And no, I wasn't trying to cheat, I just googled it to find out who else was talking about this. It's such a big deal! Anyway, I found this post and nearly wet my pants. Check it.

Last Word In Harry Potter Book Revealed After much speculation, the last word of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, has been revealed by author J.K. Rowling.

"It's not 'scar' like a lot of people have been saying," said Rowling.

JK Rowling had written an epilogue to the book long ago so that she would always have something to be writing to. The original last word of the last chapter / epilogue was "scar". She has since changed the chapter to fit changes that have been made, but that's beside the point, since it was the last word of the epilogue, which is not (according to the rules of this contest) valid anyways.

I don't have a guess, since I'll already have boughten my copy of the book by the time the contest ends and I've already seen the 5th movie.